This is a piece of cake…said no one ever.

My first dessert since Memorial Day and my last for the next 14 weeks. The occasion? A wedding. Worth every bite? You betcha. 🙂

Would I do it again? No. Although the damage was minimal (although it’s hard to say ANY damage occurred since it’s only been 48 hours since that lovely piece of cheesecake went into my belly) I would not indulge again while training for this competition.

So how do I do it? How do I say no to “cheats” and “extras” for 14 weeks?

I have no idea to be honest.

I suppose, as my coach put it today, “it’s building momentum.” I have to harness this momentum I’ve created to keep going. I hate using the phrase “stay the course” because it sounds so lame and all I can think of is former Prez George Bush (or was it his dad?) that kept saying that in his speeches…but that’s pretty much what it is.

How do I stay on track when all I really want to do is head to the drive thru and order the juiciest burger and the largest order of fries and stuff my face and turn into this person?

That looks delicious, by the way.

How does anyone stick to any goal?

Well, I will tell you what doesn’t work for me:

Fitspiration or Fitspo or Fitness Inspiration or whatever you want to call it. It’s this:

and this and this and all of these

I can read and post and share all of those pics all damn day (and trust me, I HAVE) and you know what? I still want that cheeseburger.

Selfies of Figure Pro’s.

<Sigh>

I admit in the beginning I would follow and FB stalk and ReTweet and comment on many of my favorite ladies in the biz. And I continue to follow some of them but the frequency of selfies of my ladies from their car on the way to the grocery store is just a little too much for me some days. Still luv ’em but….yeah, I need a little break.

These are real women, some with figure aspirations, some just wanting to get healthy. These ladies are not professionals, yet their posts and pics motivate me to do better. And sometimes I get a message back about how I inspire others, and that’s when I walk away from the fridge. I know it’s not worth the disappointment I would feel afterwards.

Anti-Social Activity

I was definitely under the impression I had to stay indoors and hibernate in order to avoid cravings/cheats. Several months later I realize that is entirely unnecessary. You can’t stop living, you can’t avoid birthday parties, celebrations, cookouts, holidays. They will always be there. I avoided them like the plague in the beginning or did my best to attend for just a short period of time and escape unscathed. But the more you actually put yourself in those situations, the more likely you are to learn how to use them to your advantage.

Example: Attending a party by bringing something most guests will enjoy but you also can have without going over the limit. Mothers Day is my best example: Talk about a holiday I wished didn’t exist this year for obvious reasons – this was something I was dreading. The plan was to have brunch at my sister’s house. Normally I would just head over there and eat whatever she was making. In this case, my aunt decided to make chocolate chip pancakes from scratch. Oy!

Knowing this had “Carb Overload” written all over it, I purposely searched for a low-carb pancake to make for myself. I brought all the ingredients, made it, and it was a huge success!

Honestly, I was genuinely full. I planned and counted and weighed and measured those ingredients to a T. And the feeling of empowerment afterwards when you know you’ve avoided eating something off plan is probably the best feeling of accomplishment and WELL worth it.

The cravings will never go away. They linger. They just aren’t staring me in the face anymore. As long as I don’t feed them, they stay silent.

I posted pic below on FB yesterday and thought it worth sharing again to conclude today’s post.

Thanks for reading!

GOALS: I look at this every morning now as a reminder of how far I have to go and the hard work that I must put forth everyday to get there. No time for slip ups unless I want to take a few steps backwards.

There’s no better feeling than crossing something off the list when it’s ACCOMPLISHED, but there’s no WORSE feeling than erasing it completely because you failed to even try.

Ha! Yeah the Fitspo has gotta go. I feel like it jumped the shark awhile ago. What started out as a positive thing has just gotten way out of control. I think if they are “Shared” once in awhile, great. But at least let the message be one that you haven’t heard a thousand times and not such a cliche as many of them are. Thanks for the kudos, by the way! I hope I indeed rock the competition. Although if I can just walk in heels for a few minutes without falling on my butt, I think I will consider myself lucky ha!